Dave Cutler

Dave Cutler (born March 13, 1942) is a noted software engineer, designer and developer of several operating systems including the RSX-11, VMS and VAXELN systems of Digital Equipment Corporation and Windows NT from Microsoft.

Personal history

David Neil Cutler, Sr. was born in Lansing, Michigan and grew up in DeWitt, Michigan. After graduating from Olivet College in 1965, Cutler went to work for DuPont. One of his tasks was developing and running computer simulations on Digital machines. He developed an interest in operating systems and left DuPont to pursue that interest.

Related Topics:
Lansing, Michigan - DeWitt, Michigan - Olivet College - 1965 - DuPont - Computer simulation

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Cutler's software career started at a small company he founded called Agrippa-Ord, located in Monument Square, Concord, Massachusetts (or possibly in Acton, Massachusetts), marketing software for the LINC and PDP-8 computers.

Related Topics:
Software - Concord, Massachusetts - Acton, Massachusetts - LINC - PDP-8

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Cutler holds over 20 patents and is an affiliate professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of Washington.

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David Cutler usefully summarised his own career in the foreword http://www3.sympatico.ca/n.rieck/docs/Windows-NT_is_VMS_re-implemented.html to Inside Windows NT.

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Cutler is featured prominently in the G. Pascal Zachary book ShowStopper!, which chronicles how the first version of NT was developed at Microsoft.

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In addition to his engineering skills, Cutler is known for his sardonic humor. He generally referred to the RSX fork list as the "fork queue" http://groups.google.com.au/groups?selm=140220021224386931%25elliott%40yrl.co.uk. Sometimes even his error messages turn out to have a double meaning.

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